


The Reception

by nevernlandia



Category: Penny Dreadful (TV)
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Gay Male Character, Kissing, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 12:07:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7617475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevernlandia/pseuds/nevernlandia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry Jekyll is getting married and Victor is not happy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Reception

**Author's Note:**

> Just a prompt from a list I found on Tumblr, so it might not make much sense. It was supposed to be just 500 words or so but I got carried away. 
> 
> Also, English is not my language so there will be grammar mistake everywhere and probably some made-up words which is what I tend to do when I can't find the proper word and I have not a dictionary around.
> 
> Not edited. any suggestions about how to improve my bad grammar and my lack of interesting vocabulary are welcome.

It was the sixth glass. He wasn’t counting but apparently Ethan was, because he stopped his hand when he was about to empty it.  
“Don’t you think you’ve had enough, Victor?”  
“No, not enough,” he replied trying to get off his hand. “We’re suppossed to have fun tonight. It’s a ball or something, Ethan.”  
“You won’t find it funny tomorrow when you wake up,” Ethan said with a frown which made his face look darker, almost menacing. “And I remind you you are the bestman in the wedding. It won’t be any funny if you get sick all over the bride.”  
Victor snorted. “Yes, it will. And it will express my feelings perfectly too.”  
Ethan shook his head. “Why don’t you tell him? Instead of, you know, being here hurting yourself more.”  
“Tell him what?”  
Ethan said nothing else. He wished more than ever that Vanessa could be there offering advise, offering comfort, something he wasn’t too good at. He hated to see his friend like this. Victor had been feeling miserable for a while for many reasons but since he had received the news about the wedding his mood had even gone worse. Ethan had literally dragged him out of his bed for coming to that reception.  
Victor was still looking at him questioningly with his big blue eyes, waiting for an answer Ethan wasn’t going to give but he already knew.  
“How could I?” he muttered almost to himself. “He’s getting married. He deserves to be happy.”  
“So you do,” replied Ethan.

A young lady who already looked like being a little tipsy came around to distract Ethan with any excuse. Victor took the chance to emty his glass at last. He was more than tipsy himself. Definitely drunk but still too conscious. The alcohol had no the same effect than the morphine, it didn’t quiet his mind. He looked around to watch at all the people around. The party had been organized by the bride’s father who liked a bit too much to be in control of everything related to that wedding. Victor was surprised that he had let Henry choose him as bestman instead of any of his own friends. And there was the bride herself, almost hiding in a corner while her father was getting all the attention. Poor girl, she had done nothing to earn Victor’s hate, but he could not help it. She was just a plain boring girl whose only advantage was her father’s money. A rich merchant who wanted the only thing money couldn’t buy in this country, a nobility title. For that, for his daughter becoming Lady Hyde, he was even willing to accept that his grandchildren were going to have darker skin than he would have liked to. Victor had felt sick when he had heard that rumour, still unable to believe Henry was going to accept such marriage. But he did, Victor didn’t know why. Henry need no money now he had become Lord Hyde. Why, then? He didn’t love her. He could not love her, Victor was sure of it.

Victor’s eyes searched for his friend in the crowded room but he was nowhere to be seen. He had to talk to him, Ethan was right. Almost stumbling Victor walked through the room but couldn’t find Henry. He had surely felt out of place there. He had never liked such events, he despised the social conventions and large amounts of people always made him uncomfortable. And those were the kind of people who used to make fun of him when he still hadn’t an inherited name in society. What was he supposed to talk about with them? So, if Victor knew his friend well enough he had to be even more hidden than his bride. Outside. Yes, despite the cold weather Henry had to be outside looking for fresh air to breathe.

Henry didn’t know too well the house of Mr. Woodberry but he managed to find the door to the back gardens without the help of any servant. It had been raining for a while that night and he could hear the water running from the roof of the house to the ground. It wasn’t too dark out there though. The lights from the ballroom where everyone was enjoying themselves came out from the tall windows illuminating and projecting long shadows to the porch and part of adjacent the garden. Once Victor’s eyes were used to that dim light it was easier to spot his friend sitting on a wood bench and looking at the garden as if there was something to watch apart of rain and darkness. Victor walked to him noticing as he approached that Henry’s fine elegant clothes were wet.  
“Have you been walking down this rain, Lord Hyde?”  
He could see Henry’s faint smile before he sat next to him and looked to the garden too.  
“I needed some solitude. It’s too noisy in there”, he replied.  
Victor nodded. “It is. But it’s supposed to be your party. You should be atending your guests.”  
“They’re not my guests. They’re my father-in-law’s. I don’t know anyone except you and Mr. Chandler.”  
“Oh, I think you also know Richard Pemberton. He was in our college. I just saw him and his wife…”  
“That idiot. I’m glad I haven’t seen him. Sure he’s here to see how much of a failure I am, as he always said I was.”  
“You’re not a failure”, Victor said quick. He knew Henry was about to start complaining about how his experiments were not working as he expected. He didn’t want to hear because he would be reminded of his own mistakes he still was trying to forget.   
Henry was silent for a moment, again lost in his deep thoughts. He knew he didn’t need to talk much when Victor was there. Victor respected his sullen mood, his moments of total absence. Victor didn’t need words to understand him.  
Victor had turned his face to look at him instead of the garden. Those beautiful tanned features, those big expressive brown eyes, those full lips. God, how much it hurt just to look at him and see that sadness.  
“You don’t look like a man about to get married, Henry”, he just said.  
Henry’s lips twitched. “Well, should I? It’s not a marriage for love, you know that.”  
“Why, then? You don’t need her father’s money now.”  
“But I need his social contacts. He knows all the right people who can help me to get a good name in this city. He can even get me a better position in a well-known hospital.”  
“You don’t need to work anymore, haven’t you noticed? You are Lord Hyde. A lot of doors are now open for you.”  
“Oh, so you thought I was going to go to my castle and see how dust gathers in my expensive furniture for the rest of my life?”  
“No,” Victor smiled. “You have servants, dust doesn’t gather in your furniture.”  
Henry laughed. A nice sound Victor loved to hear.  
“I want to keep working, Victor. It’s all I ever wanted to do.”  
“You miss those times when you prowled the graveyards looking for corpses to rip open, don’t you?”  
Henry elbowed him. “Shh, I’ve never done such things, Mr. Frankenstein. You surely mistake me with another, I’m not a grave digger.”  
“Well, I was there,” Victor laughed too. “There are a lot of graveyards in London. It’s so much easier here.”  
“For you. I need living specimens.”  
They went silent again. The rain kept falling but just like a light water curtain now. The heavy clouds were fading and some stars could be seen above them. Victor was starting to feel like some weight opressing his chest at the thought of losing his friend. He was starting a new life, he wondered how long it would take him to give up his experiments for a desk job which allowed him to spend more time with his wife and the children that would surely come after. And he would never know, he would never even know how Victor felt. The voice in his head which sounded exactly like Ethan’s kept saying ‘tell him, tell him’.  
“Henry…”  
“What?”  
Victor sighed and closed his eyes. “I love you. I’m completely and utterly in love with you. Please don’t get married.”  
A light wind made the trees and bushes in the garden move and the water felt from their leaves hitting the grass. That and the distant music coming from inside the house were the only sounds. Victor waited for what seemed hours until he couldn’t bear the silence anymore.  
“Say something. Or else I’ll go back inside and I will pretend I never said such words.”  
Henry’s hand moved slowly to reach Victor’s one. A delicate touch at first which became a more firm grasp. Victor didn’t dare to move. Henry took his hand and took it to his lips leaving a soft kiss on it.  
“Or don’t say anything”, Victor went on. “Just…” He was cut when his friend moved to get closer and kiss him again, this time on the lips. There. That was the answer he wanted. Once again they needed no more words.


End file.
